Harvey Shepard is a Positive force

Tuesday

Oct 30, 2007 at 2:00 AM

It happens to writers. They interview someone and find themselves enamored by a great personality. The interviewee is funny and gregarious, a seemingly warm person. They write a great piece and find out later they'd been had. After a while writers learn; check it out. Ask around. See if the persona matches the real guy.

Jeanné McCartin

It happens to writers. They interview someone and find themselves enamored by a great personality. The interviewee is funny and gregarious, a seemingly warm person. They write a great piece and find out later they'd been had. After a while writers learn; check it out. Ask around. See if the persona matches the real guy.

Harvey Shepard of Exeter comes across as something special. He's incredibly multi-talented, seems gracious and courteous, thoughtful, smart as a whip and funny; subtle, but very funny. A bit of research is called for, see if that persona and person are one and the same.

"He's a surprise because he's so quiet and unassuming till you get to know him better. Then there's all this depth," says Lesley Kimball, co-president of the board of directors of the Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program (PPLP). "There's just interesting things going on in that head."

Her list of his attributes resembles a Boy Scout list — she's not the only one to describe him this way. "He's funny, and very caring, incredibly smart and ...; he's so nice. Truly he's one of the most well-rounded people I know ...; just fascinating. ...; When he cares about something he really puts his time and energy into it. And I think that goes for community friends and family as well."

He's also a guy who keeps on keeping on. Shepard is a retired physics professor. He taught at the University of New Hampshire, starting as an assistant prof in '69, retiring in 2006. During his years in the field his writing appeared in 50 publications, his articles covered elementary particles, nonlinear dynamics, biophysics, and mathematical physics — light reading.

He's also a poet. He's an avid jazz fan, who only recently took up the piano. Both the latter interests led him to put his energy behind a number of area art nonprofits.

While not taking from the other members of the PPLP Poetry Hoot committee, which Shepard chairs, Kimball says he has to be credited with much of the projects success.

"His involvement (with PPLP) has been instrumental, especially with the Poetry Hoot. ...; The committee selects and invites the poets for the season. It's a huge job. It's just grown so much since he's been on the committee," says Kimball. "They've gotten such amazing poets to come. We've gone from the point of putting together lists and explaining who it is, till now we get solicited. ...; In that way he's invaluable to the program."

Shepard started writing 25 years ago, after a "sporadic interest," he says. Things got serious after a friend started a writers' group in Boston. "I was reading a lot of short stories ...; and thought I'd like to do that. I planned on writing (short stories). But the first thing I did was a poem and I just kept going."

In what appears to be an understatement he adds "when I'm interested in something ...; I tend to want to go into it deeply." Shepard began self-educating on the subject and took summer workshops. "It really clicked for me."

His own work focuses on people's lives "relationships, childhood, and family rather than nature," he explains. In his own life he tends to form more intimate relationships. "I have an interest in people's lives, how they live what keeps them going ...; their problems, (feelings). I just found that writing poetry is almost like taking photos; it's catching a strong feeling."

One of his most recent works was about a friend who had died. Like most, it was born of a powerful feeling. The friend was 80 when he died. Shepard recalls there were things that had truly annoyed him about his friend. "But it came to me in the city of Boston where he lived, I realized I missed him and he wasn't there; not anywhere in the world. I wonder why I didn't appreciate his good traits when he was alive."

Shepard is hitting a prolific period. "I'd been writing mostly book reviews. ...; I was fond of it, but it took up too much of my writing time." Now that he's eased up on those, he uses that time for personal work. There's also the daily journal writing, "Jotting down things that happened, what was sort of going on in the back of my mind, what I'm feeling ...; that's often how a poem starts."

His work has appeared in "Poetry East," "Poet Lore," "The Connecticut River Review," "Psychotherapy Review," "Roanoke Review," the Portsmouth Herald and in numerous anthologies and online journals. Shepard co-writes Spotlight's monthly column "Poems From the Hoot" with Lesley Kimball and Elizabeth Knies and coordinates a local poetry-writing group, The Unlicensed Poets. That's in addition to book reviews in numerous publications including The Wire and The Philadelphia Inquirer, for which he also wrote opinion pieces.

Writing is important to Shepard's life. Poetry more so. It's a way to explore those "things in the back of my head." They also serve as a record of who the poet is, he adds. "If you want to know who I am, look at some of my poems."

If they don't cover music, then a large piece of the profile is missing. Shepard discovered jazz about age 11. It's been a source of joy ever since, he says. "Music in general has had a powerful effect, changes moods. But jazz was a solace, pleasure and excitement when I was young. ...; I had a somewhat lonely and anxious childhood. It captures freedom and the possibilities of life for me, what the future might hold."

His interest tends to more modern jazz, rather than Dixieland style. He's fascinated by its interesting harmonic structure and the theory of jazz harmony. "I guess in some sense it replaces the mathematical and scientific work I did as a physicist," he says.

About a year ago he started studying piano, something he hasn't done since 13. "There was a gap of 40 years," he says laughing. Why now? "Well I don't know exactly why. It coincided about the time I retired and when I sort of recognize that jazz was so important to me. ...; I thought why not start studying it, start playing again just for pleasure."

This interest led to his involvement with the Seacoast Jazz Society. He's now its president. "I feel so strongly about jazz. ...; . I'm not a huge fan of organization work, but I recognize the organization does need to develop more, do more and...; and it's a nice way to meet people who care about jazz."

And given his two art pursuits — notably poetry — there's a lot of solitary time. The organizations give him the people contact he misses since retiring he says. And that — by the by — would be the only thing he misses. After 37 years teaching he felt he'd postponed his other interests long enough. "I've always felt somewhat split internally. And it's just the time in my life to do it. ...; I'm happily retired."

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